The man is saved by a dolphin.īuddy fought several menaces, such as an ancient, murderous spirit that was hunting him brutal, murderous alien Thanagarian warriors and even the easily defeated red robots of an elderly villain who was tired of life. Enraged at a fisherman's brutality, Buddy drops him into the ocean, intending for him to drown. In one issue, Buddy helps a band of self-confessed eco-terrorists save a pod of dolphins. The series championed vegetarianism and animal rights, causes Morrison supported. Buddy's wife Ellen, his son Cliff (9 years old at the beginning of the series), and his daughter Maxine (5 years old) featured prominently in most storylines, and his relationship with them as husband and father was an ongoing theme. Morrison made the title character an everyman figure living in a universe populated by superheroes, aliens, and fantastic technology. The title featured the protagonist both in and-increasingly-out of costume.

Morrison developed several long-running plots, introducing mysteries, some of which were not explained until a year or two later. When DC launched its Vertigo imprint in 1993, Animal Man was moved to the imprint beginning with issue #57. The series was released in DC's high-quality New Format, and was published without the Comics Code Authority seal of approval. Grant Morrison would return to the character Animal Man in 52.Īlthough the series was initially conceived as a four-issue limited series, it was upgraded into an ongoing series following strong sales. Ī majority of the series' cover art was done by Brian Bolland, often portraying intentionally unusual or shocking imagery with no text blurbs. The series is well-known for its frequently psychedelic and 'off-the-wall' content. The series is best known for the run by writer Grant Morrison from issue #1 to #26 with penciller Chas Truog who stayed on the series until #32.Īnimal Man was innovative in its advocacy and for its use of themes including social consciousness (with a focus on animal rights), metaphysics, deconstruction of the superhero genre and comic book form, postmodernism, eccentric plot twists, explorations of cosmic spirituality and mysticism, the determination of apparent free will by a higher power, and manipulation of reality including quantum physics, unified field theory, time travel and metafictional technique. 2): 30 (#1–29 plus issue numbered 0) and 2 AnnualsĪnimal Man is a superhero comic book ongoing series published by DC Comics starring the superhero Animal Man. Cover to Animal Man (volume 1) #1 by Brian Bolland.

Animal Man, Vol. 4 by Peter Milligan